Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Bima Yojana

Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Bima Yojana [Insurance coverage for Handloom Weavers, Eligibility, Premium, How to apply]

The Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Bima Yojana has been released by Government of India to improve the condition of Handloom Weavers. According to the rules of the scheme, the handloom weavers would receive insurance coverage. It will be given to weavers in joint collaboration with LIC. If the weaver is a victim of accidental death, natural death, partial or permanent disability, the nominee can opt for the scheme benefits.The victims with a disability will also get benefits under the entitled scheme. The final details of insurance coverage in relation to this scheme will be reviewed by the higher handloom authority of the state. The following part of the article would take you through other details of the scheme.

Launch details of the scheme

Name of scheme	Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Bima Yojana
Target group of scheme	handloom weavers in India
Main objective of the scheme	provides insurance coverage to handloom weavers
Scheme has been launched in	India
Scheme will be run in collaboration with	Life Insurance Corporation of India

What are the highlighting features of the Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Bima Yojana?

Main objective – The scheme has been launched with the aim of helping the handloom weavers to work in better conditions. They can get easy insurance coverage for accident kinds, be it partial or permanent.
Insurance coverage to weavers – In case of natural death, the victim weaver will get an amount of rupees 60000, and it will be given to the nominee of the insurance.
Weavers suffering a permanent or accidental disability – For victims suffering from permanent disability or accidental death cases will be given an amount of rupees 150000. It would be directly credited to the account of the nominee. However, for partial disability, the amount will be rupees 75000.

What are the eligibility criteria and documents required for the Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Bima Yojana?

To get insured under the above-said scheme has to fulfill the below-mentioned eligibility criteria.

Income limit – The weavers should earn half of his income from handloom weaving in order to get benefits under the scheme. For the same, the weavers have to produce a relevant certificate that would justify the fact that they get half of their earnings from handloom weaving only.
Age limit – weavers belonging to the age group of 18 years to 59 years can apply for the scheme. However, the weavers should submit their identity documents such as Aadhaar card, voter ID card, or ration card at the time of registration. This shall help higher authorities to check the age limit of the candidate.
Candidates of state handloom department – The candidate who is part of State Handloom Development Corporations Handloom Weavers and Cooperative Societies can apply under the above-said scheme. Other than this, weavers have to produce proper documents from state directorate of handlooms and it should be produced during registration process for the scheme.

However, the state director-in-charge of handloom has been given the charge of checking the authenticity of the certificates and eligibility criteria of the weavers. In addition, during scheme implementation, special preference will be given to women weavers from states like Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram, and others. Here, the state director-in-charge and LIC will have to ensure the additional benefits for women weavers.

What are the additional benefits offered under the entitled scheme?

According to the benefits of the scheme, children who belong to ShikshaSahyog Yojana will get scholarship.The scholarship amount will be rupees 300 that will be given per quarter to students of class IX and XII until they complete their XII standard.
When an individual is selected as a beneficiary under the given scheme, they do not have to produce their income certificate at the time of selection of the beneficiaries.

However, the scholarship is given to the candidate without charging any extra premium amount from the scholarship holder.

Contribution details of premium for every applicant

Details of contribution from three sources for premium amount of weaver are given below.

Contributor	Amount
GOI	Rupees 290
LIC	rupees 100
Weaver	rupees 80

How can the beneficiary of a deceased person opt for scheme benefits?

The beneficiary has to go through the following claim process under the scheme.

First, the beneficiary has to produce a death certificate of the dead person. This shall help the authorities to check the death case better and give the benefit accordingly.
After this, the agency will proceed with the registration by forwarding the documents submitted to justify the claims made. It will be sent to the branch that has given out the insurance coverage initially.
To settle down the claim made by the beneficiary, the Life Insurance Cooptation will send a cheque directly to the beneficiary. However, this intimation about sending the beneficiary amount has been supported by the Office of Development Commissioner for Handlooms along with the state government.
For accident cases, police officers are responsible to investigate the case first and collect accident report. The beneficiary family has to produce this report if they want to get benefits under the scheme. However, without the accident report, the beneficiary might face difficulty in getting the benefits.

The documents submitted will be verified by the director-in-charge of handlooms concerned state. In this process, the documents submitted at the time of registration will be verified by higher authorities. So, after the verification process, the weavers will be given the scheme benefits.

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